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CVE-2021-36784

Privilege escalation for users with create/update permissions in Global Roles

7.2 HighFix available

A Improper Privilege Management vulnerability in SUSE Rancher allows users with the restricted-admin role to escalate to full admin. This issue affects: SUSE Rancher Rancher versions prior to 2.5.13; Rancher versions prior to 2.6.4.

Attack profile

How easy it is to exploit

Attack vector
Network
Complexity
Low
Privileges needed
High
User interaction
None

What an attacker can affect

Confidentiality
High
Integrity
High
Availability
High

Exploit likelihood

0.90%Unchanged since May 2, 2022
90%50%10%1%

What each source reports

CVE List Score used 7.2

Privilege escalation for users with create/update permissions in Global Roles

A Improper Privilege Management vulnerability in SUSE Rancher allows users with the restricted-admin role to escalate to full admin. This issue affects: SUSE Rancher Rancher versions prior to 2.5.13; Rancher versions prior to 2.6.4.

Record
CVE-2021-36784
CVSS 3.1
7.2 HighCVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:H/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
Weakness
CWE-269
Updated
2026-11-02
EUVDEUVD-2022-4453 7.2

A Improper Privilege Management vulnerability in SUSE Rancher allows users with the restricted-admin role to escalate to full admin. This issue affects: SUSE Rancher Rancher versions prior to 2.5.13; Rancher versions prior to 2.6.4.

Record
EUVD-2022-4453
CVSS 3.1
7.2 HighCVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:H/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
Updated
2026-11-03
GitHub AdvisoriesGHSA-jwvr-vv7p-gpwq 6.5

Privilege escalation for users with create/update permissions in Global Roles in Rancher

Impact

This vulnerability affects customers who utilize non-admin users that are able to create or edit Global Roles. The most common use case for this scenario is the restricted-admin role.

A flaw was discovered in Rancher versions from 2.5.0 up to and including 2.5.12 and from 2.6.0 up to and including 2.6.3 which allows users who have create or update permissions on Global Roles to escalate their permissions, or those of another user, to admin-level permissions. Global Roles grant users Rancher-wide permissions, such as the ability to create clusters. In the identified versions of Rancher, when users are given permission to edit or create Global Roles, they are not restricted to only granting permissions which they already posses.

The privilege escalation can be taken advantage of in two ways by users with create or update permissions on Global Roles (including the restricted-admin):

  1. Editing the global admin role to make it the default for new users, then creating a new user that will be elevated to the global admin role.
  2. Creating a new global role with permissions already possessed by the restricted-admin, assigning this new role to a user, then modifying the global role to grant additional administrive like permissions ('*') to the elevated user.

Patches

Patched versions include releases 2.5.13, 2.6.4 and later versions.

Workarounds

Limit access in Rancher to trusted users. There is not a direct mitigation besides upgrading to the patched Rancher versions.

Note: If you have users who have create or edit permissions on Global Roles but are not admin users (for example, the restricted-admin), it is highly advised to review the roles and users created by those users for possible privilege escalations.

For more information

If you have any questions or comments about this advisory:

Record
GHSA-jwvr-vv7p-gpwq
CVSS 3.1
6.5 MediumCVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:H/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:H/A:H
Weakness
CWE-269, CWE-285
Updated
2026-11-02
NVD 7.2

A Improper Privilege Management vulnerability in SUSE Rancher allows users with the restricted-admin role to escalate to full admin. This issue affects: SUSE Rancher Rancher versions prior to 2.5.13; Rancher versions prior to 2.6.4.

Record
CVE-2021-36784
CVSS 3.1
7.2 HighCVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:H/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
CVSS 2.0
6.5 MediumAV:N/AC:L/Au:S/C:P/I:P/A:P
Weakness
CWE-269
Updated
2026-11-02
OSV 7.2

A Improper Privilege Management vulnerability in SUSE Rancher allows users with the restricted-admin role to escalate to full admin. This issue affects: SUSE Rancher Rancher versions prior to 2.5.13; Rancher versions prior to 2.6.4.

Record
CVE-2021-36784
CVSS 3.1
7.2 HighCVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:H/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
Updated
2026-11-02
OSVGHSA-jwvr-vv7p-gpwq 6.5

Privilege escalation for users with create/update permissions in Global Roles in Rancher

Impact

This vulnerability affects customers who utilize non-admin users that are able to create or edit Global Roles. The most common use case for this scenario is the restricted-admin role.

A flaw was discovered in Rancher versions from 2.5.0 up to and including 2.5.12 and from 2.6.0 up to and including 2.6.3 which allows users who have create or update permissions on Global Roles to escalate their permissions, or those of another user, to admin-level permissions. Global Roles grant users Rancher-wide permissions, such as the ability to create clusters. In the identified versions of Rancher, when users are given permission to edit or create Global Roles, they are not restricted to only granting permissions which they already posses.

The privilege escalation can be taken advantage of in two ways by users with create or update permissions on Global Roles (including the restricted-admin):

  1. Editing the global admin role to make it the default for new users, then creating a new user that will be elevated to the global admin role.
  2. Creating a new global role with permissions already possessed by the restricted-admin, assigning this new role to a user, then modifying the global role to grant additional administrive like permissions ('*') to the elevated user.

Patches

Patched versions include releases 2.5.13, 2.6.4 and later versions.

Workarounds

Limit access in Rancher to trusted users. There is not a direct mitigation besides upgrading to the patched Rancher versions.

Note: If you have users who have create or edit permissions on Global Roles but are not admin users (for example, the restricted-admin), it is highly advised to review the roles and users created by those users for possible privilege escalations.

For more information

If you have any questions or comments about this advisory:

Record
GHSA-jwvr-vv7p-gpwq
CVSS 3.1
6.5 MediumCVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:H/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:H/A:H
Weakness
CWE-269, CWE-285
Updated
2026-11-02

Affected products

Affected packages

Affected packages
PackageAffectedFixed
github.com/rancher/rancher
Go
2.6.0 up to 2.6.4
2.6.4
github.com/rancher/rancher
Go
2.5.0 up to 2.5.13
2.5.13

History

History
RecordedChangedSources
aliases, publishedEUVD
first indexedCVE List, GitHub Advisories, NVD, OSV

Dates are when Every CVE recorded each change. Upstream dates may differ.

In short

CVE-2021-36784 is a high vulnerability (CVSS 7.2) in Suse Rancher, published May 2, 2022. No source lists public exploit code. EPSS puts the chance of exploitation in the next 30 days at 0.90%, the 60th percentile. Fixed in github.com/rancher/rancher 2.6.4.

References

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